Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is offering a double dose of entertainment this weekend. First and foremost is The 39 Steps at CSC's mainstage (CityBeat review here). If that title sounds familiar, it's because it was a
classic espionage novel a century ago, made into a classic film by
Alfred Hitchcock 80 years ago, now turned into a very funny riff on its
predecessors as a play using only four actors to fill all the roles. CSC
has ramped up the humor by using four of its best comedic actors — Nick
Rose, Miranda McGee, Justin McComb and Billy Chace — who play the
principals, plus much of the population of London, especially McComb and
Chace who will make you dizzy as they shift from one part to another,
sometimes within seconds. It's actually a faithful retelling of the
story, but it's amped up to a high level of hilarity by the onstage
shenanigans. It adds up to great summertime humor. It's being performed
through Aug. 11. Tickets: 513-381-2273, x1.

One show isn't enough for CSC: This weekend they also
launch their annual free Shakespeare in the Park tour with a performance
of Romeo & Juliet at Boone Woods Park in Burlington at 7
p.m. on Saturday. (If you live north of the river, you'll get your
chance next Wednesday evening at Eden Park's Seasongood Pavilion or at
Burnet Woods in Clifton on Thursday.) As noted, these are free
presentations, presented in classic Elizabethan style and use six actors
from the company's resident ensemble. These are the same productions
that CSC tours to schools and community centers, so they're great for
the entire family. A week from now they'll start performing A Midsummer Night's Dream at some locations. For a full schedule, go here.

Shakespeare is behind the story of Toil and Trouble, the
current offering at Know Theatre. It's a new play (this is just the
second time its been produced; its world premiere was in California last
fall) that offers a contemporary riff on Macbeth (CityBeat review here).
Instead of kings and warriors, however, its characters are a pair of
thirtysomething slackers and Beth, a wildly ambitious sportscaster who
has more testosterone than either of the guys. There's a lot of wacky
moments in this play, replaces Macbeth's witches with fortune
cookies and the kingdom of Scotland with an almost unpopulated island
off the coast of Chile. You can pick up on the laughs through Aug. 24.
Tickets: 513-300-5669.

At the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, the annual production by Cincinnati Young People's Theatre is Grease,
a tried-and-true musical about kids in the ’50s at Rydell High. Sixty
years haven't dimmed the musicality of the show, and the youthful
performers will bring this one to life if you're in the mood for a
classic. It wraps up with a matinee on Sunday. Tickets: 513-241-6550.

While the Cincinnati Symphony's LumenoCity
isn't exactly theater, the performances in Washington Park on Saturday
and Sunday evening — with a dazzling light show on the facade of Music
Hall — will definitely be theatrical. It's the debut for Louis Langree
as the CSO's new music director, and the program will feature performers
from Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Opera. But the big deal is the
colorful illumination that will let you see historic Music Hall in a
light you've never imagined. It's free, starting at 8:30 p.m. both
nights; big crowds are expected, so come early. Don't you wish the
streetcar were already here so you could ride it to Over-the-Rhine?

Finally, a weekend
with some theater choices for your entertainment, even though the
weather is beautiful enough to keep us outdoors. But you want to see a
curtain go up somewhere, right?

You'll have fun for sure if you go to see The 39 Steps
at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. If that title sounds vaguely
familiar, it's because Alfred Hitchcock made a classic film that's at
the root of this very amusing piece of theater. Four actors play all the
roles of what was a taut tale of murder and espionage. The story's
still there, but the telling of it makes it a new experience. It's a
chance to see four of CSC's best comic actors at work, too. Through Aug. 11. Tickets: 513-381-2273.

Speaking of vaguely familiar, this weekend is your first chance to check out a virtually brand-new show at Know Theatre, Toil and Trouble. It's a contemporary take on Shakespeare's Macbeth, but the characters are two slackers and an over-the-top ambitious girlfriend. It opens tonight (running through Aug. 24);
so I haven't seen it yet, but I've read the script, and this one shows
promise. It's only had one production,it's world premiere at Impact
Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., last November.

If you
prefer something definitely familiar, head to the Covedale for the 32nd
annual summer musical by Cincinnati Young People's Theatre, which opens
tonight. It's Grease, a show about rowdy teens in the
1950s. I suspect that local teens from all over Cincinnati will have a
blast with this one. It has a short run, just through Aug. 4. Tickets: 513-241-6550.

One last suggestion: The Showboat Majestic is presenting Big River, a musical based on Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
Since it's about the adventures of Huck and Jim, a runaway slave,
escaping on the mighty Mississippi (a river that wouldn't be much
without the contributions of the Ohio), the 'boat seems like the perfect
setting. Tunes by Pop composer Roger Miller make for a rollicking
evening of music. It's one of my favorite shows; I've never been
disappointed by a production of it. It wraps up this weekend on Sunday. Tickets: 513-241-6550.

So we've moved
into the second half of 2013, as evidenced by last night's American League win in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. That means you might be seeking some theatrical entertainment.
I thought there would be several opportunities, but Untethered Theater Company
just let me know that the Clifton Performance Theater (on Ludlow Avenue) was
flooded during the Independence Day monsoon, so they've had to postpone until
the fall their production of Love/Stories(or, But You Will Get Used
to It) that was scheduled to open last week. But never fear: The Showboat rides
on the Ohio above the flood and is offering a classic musical, Big River.

There couldn't be a more perfect show for summertime on the
river — this tuneful version of the story of Huck Finn and his friend Jim, a
runaway slave, is a timeless classic. Roger Miller's award-winning score is one
that many people (myself included) love, and there's plenty of comedy to keep
everyone entertained. Mark Twain's sense of humor is front and center as we see
Huck and Tom Sawyer get into and out of scrapes, Huck's drunken dad making life
difficult, and a pair of ne'er do wells who are out to fleece people with an
entertainment. Fear not, they'll just be entertaining audiences on board the
majestic, not picking pockets. Big River runs through Sunday, July 28.
Tickets: 513-421-6550.

Production to complete the Carnegie's 2013-2014 theater series lineup

Can't
say whether the hills will be alive, but The Carnegie in Covington
certainly will be in January when it presents a "lightly staged"
production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in partnership with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. Presented Jan. 17-26, 2014,
under the direction of Brian Robertson and KSO conductor J. R. Cassidy,
the production continues a popular series that has appealed to
audiences at the Carnegie's Otto M. Budig Theatre.

The story
of a free-spirited nanny who brings joy and love back to the family of
the Von Trapp family will be presented with an emphasis on words and
music in this "lightly staged" production. That means a minimum of
costumes, scenic design and props. The small orchestra will be onstage,
and the performers fully enact scenes and sing the score from memory as
they would in a full production.

This
production completes the Carnegie's 2013-2014 theater series lineup,
taking advantage of the renovated 465-seat Budig Theatre. Single tickets
for The Sound of Music are priced at $28 for adults, $19 for students.
The full series — which also includes the musical Chicago (Aug. 10-25); the comedy Boeing Boeing (Nov. 8-24), in a collaboration with CCM Drama; and the comedy Harvey (April 11-27, 2014) — can be purchased as a subscription for $63 to $69. For details, call 859-957-1940 or go to thecarnegie.com.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company presents seventh annual summer series

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company continues its summer
tradition of Shakespeare in the Park as the free series returns for the seventh
year this August. Romeo and Juliet and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be
showcased in parks around the Greater Cincinnati area and Northern Kentucky
Aug. 3-30.

CSC Ensemble Member Nicholas Rose is directing the classic
lovers tale, Romeo and Juliet. While
the fantastic story of betrayal and magic in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is being directed by CSC Education
Associate Miranda McGee. Six actors from the CSC Resident Ensemble will be
acting in these performances. After the free park tour, they will continue to
tour community centers, schools, venues and other performance centers into May
of 2014.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is continuing its partnership
with Cincinnati Parks and Recreation, offering free shows at Seasongood
Pavilion in Eden Park, Burnet Woods, Mt. Echo Park and the new Smale Riverfront
Park. Washington Park will see the group on their tour, alongside parks in
Madeira, Colerain and Monroe in Ohio, and Burlington, Edgewood and Maysville in
Kentucky. The acting troupe will have two performances at the Vinoklet Winery
as well. Certain park locations will be accepting canned food and
non-perishable items — CSC has a partnership with the Freestore Foodbank.

If a free, al fresco viewing of Shakespeare’s best sounds
fun, then make sure to get to each performance early to ensure good seating.
All shows are general admission with first-come, first-serve seating. For more
information go to cincyshakes.com.

Well, the big show
that's on the way will be fireworks next week, of course. That means
that most theaters are wrapping up early summer productions.

But you still have a chance to see The Hound of the Baskervilles
at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. It's a daffy take on a Sherlock
Holmes mystery. In truth, it pretty well follows Sir Arthur
Conan-Doyle's brilliant deducer as he unthreads a mystery surrounding a
diabolical dog that seems to be pursuing a cursed family on the remote
moors of Devon. But the story is told using just three actors — all male
performers from Cincinnati Shakespeare's corps of veterans — who play
male and female, making quick (and sometimes mistaken) costume changes.
Nick Rose, Jeremy Dubin and Brent Vimtrup milk every last drop of humor
from this amusing script, with the able assistance of director Michael
Evan Haney. Haney, who has served as the Cincinnati Playhouse's
associate artistic director for more than a decade brings out the best
in comic timing, so you're sure to have a rollicking good time. Final
performances at Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: 513-381-2273, x1.

You can also catch The Odd Couple on board the Showboat Majestic through Sunday.
Neil Simon's comedy about two divorced guys who just can't get along is
an American classic, to be sure — so maybe that makes this a perfect
show for the weekend before the July 4th
holiday. Felix and Oscar would like nothing better than declaring their
"independence," but instead, they slowly drive one another mad. Two
good actors, Joshua Steele and Mike Hall, are no doubt making this an
amusing piece of theater. Tickets: 513-241-6550.

Vosmeier to produce second production of Lauren Gunderson’s 'Toil and Trouble'

Eric
Vosmeier says he’s stoked by a show he’s just added to Know
Theatre’s production schedule for the summer. He’s set to direct
a modern take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth
called Toil
and Trouble.
Lauren Gunderson’s play had its world premiere at Impact Theatre in
Berkeley, Calif., last November; Know is giving the show its second
production, opening July 26 and running through August 24.

Landing
it, Vosmeier says, is “another victory for our new schedule model
by securing the rights for the first production of this show
following its world premiere. We’ve been looking for a strong
comedy for quite some time, and I think this fits the bill perfectly.
This contemporary retelling of Macbeth
is spot on, but with enough twists and turns to keep the audience
guessing. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Toil
and Trouble is
the story of two ambitious guys and a badass lady who decide to fight
the recession with dictatorial dreams. Instead of going to grad
school like everyone else they know, Adam, Matt and Beth are Bay Area
thirtysomethings with too much education and not enough employment.
They’re overqualified to work at Borders, and Adam is brimming with
ideas — but most of them involve robots.

Thanks
to three fortune cookies with some creepy fortunes (remember, Toil
and Trouble
this is based on Macbeth,
which commences with three witches predicting Macbeth’s rise to
power), the trio settles for taking over a small island nation off
the coast of Chile. The show throws baseball, investors, Wikipedia,
hypothetical sex and real violence into one bubbling cauldron. The
overlay of Macbeth
brings
hipster malaise and ridiculous modernity into the mix, demonstrating
that hubris, greed, power and passion never go out of style.

Vosmeier
has cast Breona Conrad as Beth, Joshua Murphy as Matt and Chris
Wesselman as Adam. Conrad and Murphy have been touring for several
seasons in Know’s production of the Fringe hit Calculus:
The Musical.
Vosmeier says, “I’m thrilled to have one more chance to work with
Josh and Breona before they leave Cincinnati.”

You
can purchase tickets in advance for $15; they’ll be $20 the week of
performance, beginning Mondays at noon. (Your best deal is to
purchase one of Know’s flex-passes, six tickets for $90. You can
use some for Toil
and Trouble,
and save the rest for future shows.) Info: 513-300-5669.

Most of our local theaters are cooling their jets for the
summer months, but you still have two more weekends to catch the
hilarious, three-actor Sherlock Holmes spoof of Hound of the Baskervilles
at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. This one is definitely fine-tuned,
featuring a trio of Cincy Shakes best actors — Jeremy Dubin, Nick Rose
and Brent Vimtrup — directed by Michael Evan Haney from the Cincinnati
Playhouse. It's a revival of a hit from last summer, so they have the
comic timing of quick costume changes and fast-paced tomfoolery down
pat. I understand that this weekend is almost sold out, but don't let
that keep you from trying. Final performance is June 30. I hope you've
deduced that you need to get for it this time around, even if you saw it
before. (If you did, you know how funny it is.) It's elementary!
Tickets: 513-381-2273, x1

The Showboat Majestic is a venue that floats along every
summer with solid entertainment. Right now you can come on board for a
classic piece of comedy by Neil Simon, The Odd Couple.
It's a hit from 1965 in a production featuring a couple of great local
actors: Joshua Steele as the prissy Felix and Mike Hall as the messy
Oscar. They're a pair who know their way around a funny script, so it's a
fine show for a summer's laugh. Tickets: 513-241-6550

Maybe you thought Sesame Street was funny when you were a kid. How'd you like to see some raunchy puppet behavior? Avenue Q
is onstage in Dayton at the Human Race Theatre. The 2004 Tony
Award-winning musical offers laugh-out-loud musical mayhem. But leave
the kids at home: This one is aimed at those who are twentysomething and
up, offering answers to a simple question: What happens to the kids who
were raised on Sesame Street when they grow up? You'll find the answers
— in songs like "It Sucks to Be Me" and "The Internet Is for Porn" — at
the Loft Theatre, 126 North Main St. in downtown Dayton. Tickets: 937-228-3630

Stars of the TBS hit show come to Newport for one night of stand-up

When most sit-coms have a day off from taping or filming,
the cast takes it easy. Not Sullivan &
Son, the TBS sitcom that launched its second season last month.

The
show’s star, Steve Byrne, along with fellow cast members Owen Benjamin, Ahmed
Ahmed and Roy Wood Jr. hit the road for a series of one-off gigs. Tonight they
perform at The Funny Bone on the Levee. “We have four episodes left to film, so
on the weekends, when we have free time, if we have the opportunity to do a
live show we’ll jump out," Byrne says. "The Funny Bone asked us to come out, and we’re really
excited to do the show.”

Each comic will do about 20 minutes worth of
material. The show closes with all four doing an improv sketch. The four are
great friends, as is the entire cast and crew of the show. Often they’ll have a
grill out and Dan Lauria’s place. He plays Byrne's father on the show. “He’ll
make us watch these old black-and-white films,” says Byrne. “He’ll say ‘Watch
this cut. There’s no cut for eight minutes. That’s acting. That’s what you boys
should be doing.’ And we’ll say ‘Dan, we’re on a sit-com on TBS!’”

The Sullivan & Son Comedy Tour stops at The Funny Bone on
the Levee, tonight (Monday, June 17). Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 859-957-2000.
funnyboneonthelevee.com.

Head to Dayton's Nutter Center this weekend to see CirqueduSoleil's classic show, Quidam. The show, at the time a big top
production, spent several weeks in Cincinnati in August and September
2006 in a "grand chapiteau" on the Ohio River bank near the Suspension
Bridge. It's the story of a bored kid named Zoé whose parents
ignore her. We enter the world of her imagination when Quidam, a
headless wanderer under an umbrella, hands her his blue bowler hat.
As her self-absorbed parents float
away, the story moves into the magical reality her imagination, populated by Cirque's
physically astonishing performers. There's a "German Wheel," a pair of
man-sized double hoops with a guy rolling around the stage; an amazing
silk contortionist, high
above the stage); and "Statue," a mesmerizing performance by a
muscle-bound guy and a powerful woman
who slowly balance in various positions. My favorite was Banquine, the
finale by 15 acrobats, launching tumblers high into the air and catching
them. Through Sunday. Tickets: cirquedusoleil.com

Other productions to consider for your theater calendar this weekend: The Odd Couple (just opened on the Showboat Majestic, 513-241-6550); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Cincinnati Shakespeare, 513-381-2273), Nunsense (Commonwealth Dinner Theatre at Northern Kentucky University, 859-572-5465) and, if you're looking to make a theater weekend in Dayton with Quidam on one evening, how about filling the other with the outrageously funny X-rated Sesame Street-inspired Avenue Q at Human Race Theatre Company (888-228-3630).